TAUNTON — The bad news from the Taunton office of the National Weather Service is a forecast of 10 to 14 inches overnight through Wednesday morning for southeastern Massachusetts.

The silver lining, according to meteorologist Bill Simpson, is that it's a relatively dry snow, which should limit the number of power utility outages throughout northern Bristol County.

Simpson also said it's fortunate the snowstorm is doing most of its damage overnight, and not in the morning hours. But he cautioned that Wednesday's traffic commute will at least be "challenging."

Quantity of snowfall during a winter storm in Taunton compared to it's closest city, Fall River, is historically negligible, Simpson said — although he added that Taunton tends to capture slightly more precipitation.

Simpson said temperatures in the Taunton and Fall River region will be chilly from now through this weekend.

The temperature, he said, will drop from the teens on Wednesday into the single-digit range Thursday morning. By Friday, it will have crept back into the teens. But Simpson warned that the most severe cold will be on tap for Friday night.

Looking beyond that, he said, there's "still some iffyness."

Winds are expected to be 15 to 25 mph out of the west with gusts up to 45 mph.

Although "relatively similar" to this year's Jan. 2 Hercules nor'easter, Simpson said the current storm is "not as widespread" in its impact and effect.

Taunton reported just over nine inches of snow from that storm.

Simpson said public precipitation tends to become inflated when two notable snowstorms fall within the same month. He attributes part of the over-reaction to the fact that until Monday the temperature in the region was about 10 degrees above normal.

"People think it's record-breaking, but it's not even close," he said.

As for all the recent talk about the weakening of the polar vortex, which are circular winds surrounding both the earth's poles, he said it's "nothing unusual."

Simpson said people sometimes tend to confuse a blizzard with a snowstorm. A blizzard warning involves winds of 35 mph over a duration of at least three hours. He said this storm could at best be described as having "blizzard-like" conditions.

Simpson declined to offer a detailed prognosis for next week. Looking that far ahead with certainty, with all the unpredictably associated with upper-air currents and the Gulf Stream, he said would be "impossible."